Between ¨gender neutral parenting¨ and ¨the Google manifesto¨, there’s a recent ongoing conversation about defying traditional gender roles we can’t ignore. With powerful influencers as role models, such as Malala and Emma Watson, who are constantly inviting us to challenge our perceived notions about gender, women and equality. And, inspiring men, such as Justin Baldoni and John Legend, who are redefining what masculinity looks like — the fight towards gender equality is slowly, but surely, becoming an intersectional affair.

Empirical research shows that no domestic arrangement, not even one in which the mother works full time and the father is unemployed, results in child-care parity between heterosexual spouses. The story we tell ourselves, the one about great leaps toward the achievement of gender equality between parents, is a glass-half-full kind of interpretation. But the reality is a half-empty glass: While modern men and women espouse egalitarian ideals and report that their decisions are mutual, outcomes tend to favor fathers’ needs and goals much more than mothers’.

“Get over your biological urges,” Simmons said. “It’s natural to want to have kids, but, sorry, you can’t have it both ways. You have to commit to either career or family. It’s very difficult to have both.”

With every sexual harassment scandal that hits, I feel all the emotions: anger, betrayal, heartbreak that something I vaguely sensed turns out to really be true. I also feel a growing sense of fear—not for me, but for my kids. How do I shape my son into a man who respects women and treats them as equals? Is it possible for him to breathe society’s misogynistic air every day without succumbing? How do I instill in my daughter the confidence, resolve, and resilience to thrive in a culture that will incessantly push her down?

Since starting the campaign, people have left messages of their own experiences like, “I believe in Equality and kids need fathers too.”, and “Not every dad is the main earner and not every mum wants to stay at home! The law should be equal”.

I want my son to experience all there is to experience. I want him to be able to show his emotions to his friends, his significant others, his partners. I want him to grow up aware. I want him to grow up without needing to prove his masculinity. I want him to grow up secure in himself and his place in this world.

A majority of men and women –52% and 64%, respectively–believe there are not enough women in executive positions and when asked why prevents women earning as much as men, the greatest obstacle cited by both sexes was sexism and or gender bias.